ABILENE, Texas –
Drake Anderson's sacrifice fly in extra innings lifts the University of the Incarnate Word over Abilene Christian University, 9-8, tonight on the road for the team's twelfth win of the season. The Cardinals are now 12-9 on the season, while the Wildcats fall to 10-11.
Down 4-0 going into the top of the fourth,
Cole Tabor put UIW on the board with a solo home run to right field to make it 4-1.
In the top of the fifth, the Cardinals took the lead, and it started with Anderson sending one over the left-center field wall to cut the lead to 4-2. Cris Enriquez kept things going when he dropped a single into left and was able to take second off a fielding error.
Enrico Carrion followed that up with a four-pitch walk, which forced a mound visit by ACU. Following the mound visit, both runners moved up 90 feet off of
Trent Rucker's sacrifice bunt. The Wildcats now made the call to the bullpen;
Preston Newberry drove in Enriquez to make it 4-3 off a groundout to second after the pitching change. Carrion was able to take third on the play.
With two outs now,
Cole Tabor walked to put runners on the corners. UIW tied the game when
Tony DeJesus singled through the left side to score Carrion to tie the game at four and send Tabor to second. The Cardinals then took the lead off
Jake Weaver's RBI double down the right field line to make it 5-4.
ACU in the second half of the fifth retook the lead when it plated four runs on four hits to go up 8-5.
Down three going into the top of the eighth,
Tyler Garritano and Anderson each singled to start things off. Both runners later scored off of Enriquez's three-run home run to right field to tie the game at eight.
The Wildcats in the bottom of the ninth had the winning run on third but were unable to score as a flyout to center ended the threat to force extra innings.
After a scoreless tenth inning, Weaver doubled to deep center field and then moved to third on
Thomas Lyssy's sacrifice bunt to start the eleventh. He then scored on Anderson's sacrifice fly to left center to put UIW in front 9-8.
The Cardinal bullpen set ACU down in order in the bottom of the eleventh to secure the victory.
Reliever
Ashton Perkins improved to 2-0 on the season. He allowed one hit and struck out one in an inning of work. Pitcher
Jordan Bush earned his first save of the season while striking out two.
Enriquez led the Cardinals in hits, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs, two runs scored, and a home run.
Anderson was 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBIs, a pair of runs scored, and a home run, while Weaver tallied a pair of hits and a run scored and an RBI.
UIW is home this weekend when it hosts Nicholls in a three-game conference series that starts on Friday at 2 p.m.
